Starfall
by MystikalCherryBlossom
Summary: When a star falls, it means a soul's journey has ended, in my case it means a big change. Gene, Jim and i work together peacefully when an idea leads to acquiring Spike Speigal, Faye Valentine, Ed and a Mysterious woman named Julie. more misadventures lea
1. When a Star Falls

**NOTE**: much as I wish, I do not own Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star or anything other than my own life. Shella, if you want your brief mention omitted let me kno. Same goes for Sam and Jake. K, on to the introduction of all the madness!

* * *

I used to be a normal kid, then I met Gene Starwind. It all turned out that I acquired a pilot's license and the skills to go with it. And it all started when I moved to Washington State in November, 2001. 

I stood outside my back door, looking up at the sky. Thinking. I had lost a friend and not been able to say goodbye. I watched the stars carefully, praying for one to shoot by. I saw a fleck of silver shoot by and sighed. _Imissed my chance_… I thought. I was staring at the odd lights on the horizon and thought how much it looked like a spaceport in an anime I watched. Then I saw it… the silver fleck that would change my life.

"Do we **have** to go to Fred Meyer tonight?", I complained. My mom looked over at me with a look of pure disapproval.

"Samantha, you can't stay home all the time.", she replied. "I know you don't like it here, but you're going to have to adapt. I also know how much you miss Sam. That's why I'm trying to find his phone number. Let's just go to the store, it'll be really quick, I promise." I groaned inwardly as I followed her out to the car.

As I followed my mom through the aisles, I noticed a boy with longish blond hair watching me intently. He looked tired and every so often held up a small device that he talked to.

_It's gotta be a portable DVD player,_ I thought. Then, I noticed a red haired man with scars on his face walk over to the kid. He was talking to the kid loud enough for me to hear.

"Look, Jim… you knew this was going to happen! It has to come down to a showdown eventually and here it is! Damn, where the fuck is Fred?" The red-haired man paced as he talked.

"Gene, number one, I wouldn't use the words 'fuck' and 'Fred' in the same sentence. Especially knowing how he feels about you. Yeah I knew about the showdown. But do so many people have to be involved?"

Gene laughed. "You're checking out the babes aren't you?"

Jim looked back at me and I grinned. "No I'm not. I'm not you, Gene. I concentrate on the task at hand, not how big that dumb brunette's ass is. Doesn't Iris give you any-"

"Enough, Jim."

"Come on! You're always like this when you're horny."

I burst out laughing at that. Gene turned around and glared at me. "Something wrong?", He asked curtly.

"No, nothing. I thought it was funny what the kid said. Your name's Jim right?" I replied.

"No, I'm Gene. Gene Starwind. This is my friend, Jim Hawking. You seem awfully friendly…"

Somehow, that night ended up changing my life. I helped them find their friend and in return, they asked me to be a part of their operation. I was online reading The Daily Inquirer when I found an interesting story.

"3 years ago, bounty hunter Spike Speigal died at the hands of a former friend, and today that friend has been identified. Alexei 'Vicious' Zchartikov, former second in line to the Red Dragon Clan in Tharsis City, has been identified as the murderer. He was, however, pronounced dead a year ago after being in a coma for over 2 years. Spike on the other hand has seemingly awakened from the dead. Just months ago, he rejoined his former teammates, Jet Black and Faye Valentine. This information was found when they caught a major bounty , Alexei's brother, Nikolas. Nikolas Zchartikov was wanted for mass counts of rape, larceny, and embezzlement of the Martian Government's funding for a new weather system."

_Wow, _I muttered. _That's amazing! I thought it was awesome that there was a whole other solar system floating around… ah well. Sentinel is awesome._

"Get up, you'll miss your bus", yelled my mom. I was just having the best dream in I've ever had and I had to miss the end. I crawled tiredly out of bed and quickly got dressed, putting on my black tank top and jeans, then I ran to the kitchen and ate breakfast quickly.

"Samantha, I hate it when you wear black", my mom complained tiredly.

"Well it's the only thing I could find within 5 minutes." I said. I looked over hopefully at my dad. He was too busy drinking coffee to care.

When I finally got out of the house the bus had already left. "Shit… now I'm gonna have to walk a mile to school… oh wait a minute, I can drive to school." I walked over to the small hover car that Gene had given me for Christmas, hopped in and drove off.

I sat down in my assigned seat and sighed. Mrs. Godfrey walked up to the front of the room and said: "Well class, we have another new student joining us today. Stephanie, will you come up here and introduce yourself?" Meanwhile, I was chatting very randomly with Jim, talking about the great party we all had last night. After I heard the name, I looked up to see if it was who I though it was. Jim shot a sideways glance at me and groaned. The Stephanie that was standing at the front of the room was the same one I had known in Colorado.

"Wow", I said in surprise. "Never thought I'd see her again."

"You know that girl?" Jim asked.

"Yes, I've known her for about 3 years."

"Cool I guess- did you know that Gene found another stash of dragonite?"

"He did?" We were so busy chatting that I never noticed that Stephanie was sitting down right next to me-at least until she said:

"Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?"

I glanced over at her and sighed. "Here I was hoping you would recognize me but you didn't, interesting" It was only then that she noticed who I was.

"Samantha! Well this is a surprise, I thought you moved to Bellingham."

"I did, but it didn't work out the house was a wreck." Suddenly, Jim elbowed me in the side.

"Pay attention" he whispered. "If you don't you'll have homework again" Everyone knew that if you did all your work and turned it in on time in this class and paid attention, you wouldn't get homework. Jim and I were the only ones who almost never got homework. I glared at him but I did as I was told.

Later in gym, everyone who wanted to take martial arts lined up in front. Jim and I were already accomplished black-belts (authors note: I had already studied martial arts in Colorado and Sam had given me some tips and later I learned some tricks from Spike, but who's supposed to know that?). Stephanie volunteered after learning I was a black belt, I was shocked. We had our normal workout and then it was off to art class where Jim and I parted company for the day and didn't see each other until we got on the bus. Today, we were supposed to sketch a couple of still life objects. I decided to draw some of the scenery I saw driving over the Columbia River. As usual, my artwork was pinned up front but today, someone else's work was up next to it. It was very good and I thought it might have been Mike or Chris, who were excellent artists. I was shocked when I found it had been Stephanie's work. (That bitch traced it anyway!)

When the bell rung signaling the end of classes for the day, I was first on the bus as usual, but I couldn't find Jim anywhere. Then I glanced over at the seat he usually took and found it was already occupied. Since the seat next to me was almost never taken, I moved over and waited for Jim to get on the bus. Almost as soon as I had moved over, Jim got on the bus. He was at first surprised that his usual seat was taken, but then he eventually settled down. We were talking about the party again when I was suddenly aware that somebody was eavesdropping.

"Well you haven't wasted any time making friends here" Stephanie said, mockingly. I glared as she said it.

"And you haven't wasted time making enemies I see." I hissed back.

Jim interrupted before we started fighting. "Both of you stop for a minute. Samantha, you're beginning to look like Aisha when she's pissed (I quickly stopped growling and attempted tolook composed) and as for your friend well, lets say she'd scare small children, if she doesn't already." At this I laughed openly. Jim had a great sense of humor when he wanted to. Just then Lake Stevens came into view where Jim and I got off the bus. To my complete shock and dismay, Stephanie got off with us.

I groaned openly and said, "Well we can't talk about what Gene did anymore, its not suitable for small children to hear." That's when Stephanie called me a name that rhymes with 'itch' and left. I was aware that a smaller trail ran next to this one but I didn't say anything to Jim.

"So how bad was the damage?" I asked.

"Well, let's just say half the courtyard and half that guy's arm are still missing", Jim grinned as he said it. "And Deanna was kind of pissed off at him for ruining her new cherry trees, but I really don't think he cared."

"God, talk about overkill. Can't he ever be subtle? Or at least nice? Why couldn't Gene have just knocked that guy out? I mean did he really have to kill all those poor cherry trees?"

Jim laughed. "Well, that's not his style. He has two reputations. One as a womanizer and another as the outlaw who always overdoes things and never plans ahead." We both laughed and continued walking.

After I got home, I got online and chatted online with some of my friends, mainly Shella. While I was doing my math homework, I called Sam. Of course it was just to get math help… actually it wasn't. I really did miss the guy I'd been friends with for years now. Afterwards, I went over to see Lennon and Rose at the mansion.

"Yo Samantha!" Lennon called, attempting to be cool. "What up, homie?" I glanced over at her and sighed.

"The sky and that's about it" I replied.

She grinned and walked over. "Are we slightly bored? Maybe i should attempt to amuse you."

"Lennon, I'm sorry... I'm really not your type..." Our conversation ended abruptly as Jim walked up.

"Hi Samantha, what's up?" he said.

"The sky, what else?"

"Well, there's another party tonight, wanna come?"

"I dunno, today is Friday, so I don't have school tomorrow, and… well ok. You know what I don't understand is why all he does is party. I mean he has his own style and all but what about this (I pulled out a new issue of the **Daily Inquirer** )" Jim read the article I showed him. "But Samantha, those people are bounty hunters. Gene is an outlaw. And a stupid one at that. Just this morning, he got up very late, had a horrible hangover and he wouldn't drink this thing I made to help."

"Well, what did you give him, acetone, dynamite, paint thinner and nitro-glycerin?"

Jim grinned evilly. "No, although I was very tempted, it was just a Blue Oyster. I have a favor to ask you."

"Oh, so you want me to poison him, try again. Even though he's so immature, I still think he's hot."

Lennon decided put her two cents in just then. "Well, I tried to get him into bed with me again and I failed miserably, am I that unattractive?"

"We won't go there…" Jim muttered.

"Uh yeah, no." I said with a grin.

Lennon shotboth of usa glare. "YES this is gonna be great…whooohooo Party party PARTY! "

Later as I was getting ready, my mom came in my room and asked what I was doing.

"Mom, I told you I was going to a party", I answered. "It lasts until 1 am and then I'll be home, plus everybody I know is gonna be there-I'll be safe."

"I don't care, there isn't anybody who'll protect you with a gun."

"Wanna bet? Gene will." Then I ran downstairs and grabbed my car keys (I'll have you know that I'm only twelve, but I have a car and driver's license). I went outside, got in my car, and put a CD in. I switched to track 4 and smiled as I thought of some good times I'd had back in Gunbarrel.

The first thing I noticed whenI backed out of the garagewas that Ehefrau (the car that Jim owns/shares with Gene) was in the driveway.

Gene leaned over and said, "Lennon called to tell me that they're not holding the party at the mansion, they're holding it at a club, so she told me where it is. I don't know why, but somehow I think it's a trap for me again. Follow me."

"Damn it, why the hell does she always wait until the last possible second?"

"Hey", Jim said. "Be decent-we have two ladies in the car here"

I saw Melfina and Hilda both grinning evilly at me.

"Hey Jim, you wanna ride with me instead?"

"Sure, you said you wanted to talk with me anyways. But just wait until you find out who we have to pick up-you are NOT going to be happy."

"NOT Stephanie!"

"The very same, Deanna invited her because she's new." After this, I started up the engine and followed Gene out to a little town 29 miles from Seattle, then I turned around went back to Lake Stevens to pick up our 'guest'. As I started to go back, Jim offered to go with me.

"Ok, but you are riding up front and that's final. I don't care what that little stoner bitch says to you."

"Ok, here it is, 2935 Morning Star Lane. I wish I didn't have to pick that slut up, I really don't like her anymore." Jim glanced at me as I got out of the car and walked up to the door. I walked up and rang the doorbell. Stephanie's mother answered the door.

"Yes?" She said. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I was sent to pick Stephanie up for the party held by Mrs. Deanna Kirkson."

"Ok, I'll go get her." She disappeared and returned a minute later with Stephanie.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked in surprise. "I was told I was to be picked up by an adult, and taken to the party."

"Well, the one who was supposed to pick you up is sort of busy."

Suddenly, Lennon yelled. "Samantha! Can you drive me to the party?"

"Sorry, no room"

"Damn it, now I have to walk."

We got in my car and I was just starting the engine when Stephanie said, "Hey wait a minute, who's gonna drive?"

"I am, stupid." I said irritably.

"No way, you don't have a driver's license!" At this I reached into my wallet and threw my drivers and pilots licenses back at her.

She read them aloud as follows: " 'The Federal Space Forces state that Samantha DePaoli, age 12, is a registered Pilot of her ship the Moonstar model XGP-15A2 registration number Z23X53W67 and is hereby allowed to dock at all legitimate space ports' well this is good 'The Federal Administration of all Weapons and Firearms certifies that Samantha DePaoli, age 12, is a licensed carrier of the following firearms: one double barrel shotgun/rifle, one caster gun plus shells, one Law's rocket, one 12gauge rifle and 1 each of the following: (Star 45mm quick-fire automatic, Jericho 941 auto, rare model display gun, Japanese medium length barrel 30mm handgun.) 45 mm handgun, 9mm handgun and a 6 mm laser shooter. On board the Moonstar, 5 machine guns, 2 grappler arms with interchangeable weapons and different missile launchers located all over the ship.' Well, well, well. 'The Federal Department of Motor and Hover Vehicles hereby certifies that Samantha DePaoli, age 12, is a licensed driver of all motor and hover vehicles. This statement allows her into all spaceports, docks and through all gates.' Um ok, this is interesting." Stephanie was now openly staring at the sheaf of papers that she just read. "I can't believe this," she said in amazement. "You never told me anything about it."

I glared over at her and said: "Well I thought I couldn't trust you-wait…how am I supposed to trust you?"

"Can we just go now?" Jim was getting impatient. I started the engine and the car rose up in the air and shot forward quickly.

As we drove up, I turned down my stereo and listened for music coming from the dance hall. "Oh yeah! Serena Paris!" I cried excitedly.

Melfina came over to me, "Aren't you guys coming? Oh by the way, you need to showyour driver's license to get in and yeah. Have fun guys!"

"Hey, Mel, wait a sec…" I said. "How's the party going? Has there been any trouble yet?"

"Um, I'm not sure"

"Uh oh, here comes trouble." As I said this, fifteen mecha popped out of the ground and started to charge at us.

"Oh shit, what the hell are we supposed to do now?" Stephanie said with a worried look on her face.

"Gene, you better come out here…", I said quickly. "Damn it, I have no choice, I'm gonna have to fight."

Jim turned around just as I pressed a button on my watch. "Samantha, you're crazy, we've got a stranger here!"

"Never mind that—look out!" I pulled my double barrel out and shot just as another person did the same; 5 mecha exploded and burned up.

"Gene…how'd you get out here so fast?" I asked.

"I flew, no I ran when I heard you yell." He said with a grin.

"That's all well and good, but here come more!" As I said this, the remaining mecha charged forward.

"Get outta here, I don't want you to get hurt." Gene said. "This is dangerous business."

"I don't care, I'm gonna stay and help"

"No you're not" After he said that, I felt something hit my arm and heard him yell for Lennon. "Take her inside and don't let her out of your sight"

"What did you do to her?"

"It's a sleeping drug, after I helped her become a pilot I knew she would want to help me defeat these things so I went out and bought some of this. Now GO!" As Lennon picked me up, I heard a scream and a yell then I blacked out.

"Are you awake?" I managed to open my eyes-into Rose's blue ones.

"Is the fight over?" I asked.

"Yes, Gene won-barely. He's recovering right now."

"What happened to him?"

"One bullet wedged itself between his ribs, if we hadn't have gotten to him when we did, he'd be dead."

I stared for a second, then asked… "How long ago was that?"

"1 week ago exactly. He is almost fully recovered…uh hey there." Gene walked in as we were speaking.

"Gene! My mom is gonna kill me, what did you do to me?"

"A sleeping drug, don't worry, she knows that already" I gasped as I looked at him. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and his entire rib-cage-area was bandaged. (Ouch)

"Um, what the hell happened? I heard you got hurt, but how did you defeat those – things?"

"I had help of course, outlaws always have back-up."

"Who helped you, Jim? Suzuka? Aisha?"

"You left one out" "HILDA? No way! Damn, you guys are a team."

"You can say that again," Hilda grinned. "God damn I'm getting tired of savin' your hide… It appears that people don't flinch anymore when I walk into a room. I'll have to take care of that soon. Ah, you're finally awake, have a nice sleep?"

I glared at her. "NOT funny, oh crap my mom is here."

As I said this, my mom walked in. "What happened to you? I was told (she glared at Gene) that you were hiding from the pirates. Is that true?"

I glanced over at Gene before finally responding. "Uh, yeah I was asleep here for awhile. Its ok-really."

Mom didn't look convinced, but she bought it. "I think its time you came home, you've been here long enough."

* * *

**_END AUTHOR'S NOTE: Mecha are robots designed to kill basically. They are about 7 feet tall with arms that are made out of machine-guns and they have knives in the knees. pleasant way to die huh?_**


	2. Lunkheads and Mysterious women

NOTE: no i still dont own CB or OLS, much as id like to own Spike... lol i am a twisted person. music i'd Reccommend for your listening and reading pleasure here would be CLUTCH from the CB movie soundtrack and possibly maybe IRIS by the goo goo dolls. dont worry, big stuff coming up and somewhat of a lemon in this chap. i suck at writing lemons so far so yeah. enjoy! r and r plzkthx.

After about a month, I had a great idea for a job. I went to visit Gene to tell him that and the fact that we were moving back to Colorado in a month. But when I got there he had already found out that we were moving. "Back to good old Colorado, huh?"

"Yup I can't wait to get back, oh by the way, I need to talk to you-I had a good idea as how to make more money…"

He looked at me for a minute before saying-"Ok, I'm interested- how about we go to Clyde's and talk it over?"

"Ok, I want to try those lemon murrys anyway-with vodka." Gene chuckled as he grabbed his coat.

About an hour later, we arrived at Cleid's –to witness a fight. A man with dark brown eyes and greenish hair(Note: I must add that this guy was HOT!) was almost dancing to get away from a wanted bounty(Note: I'd seen this guy on **Big Shot** many times.) who started to shoot.

Almost automatically, I pulled out my gun but Gene stopped me. "I think he has it under control- look." I looked over. The fight was over and the brown-eyed guy came over to us. "Mind if I sit with you guys?" he asked. I looked at Gene and he nodded.

"Sure, I don't mind." He grinned and shook my hand.

"A pleasure to meet you, and by the way-my name is Spike." (Note: by now I was ready to faint, this was none other than Spike Speigal the famous bounty hunter.)

"I'm Samantha and this is Gene, a pleasure." Then I turned to Gene and started telling him my idea. "I was thinking that we could become bounty hunters instead."

Just then, Iris(the barmaid)walked over and almost screamed. "Gene, it's been so long-what've you been up to…and who the hell is this _kid_?"

I looked at her for a minute and said: "I'm Samantha a friend of his…"

Iris suddenly squealed. "Oh, Spike, you are such a good fighter, you didn't use a gun once(Gene and I simply stared at each other for a minute) wow now I know I love martial arts". Iris jumped as 3 men came up behind Spike; Gene and I simply grinned and pointed just as one of the guys came up behind Spike with a knife. He turned around and yawned; dodging a slash (I was openly staring)then, he tripped the man and threw him to the ground in a single move. "Oh, I'm so sorry(he sounded bored) I didn't see ya there buddy" he bent over (supposedly to help the guy) and dodged yet another slash. Spike put handcuffs on the fallen man and grinned, "1 down, 2 to go then I get all the money for a change". He then straightened up, knocking the other guy down in the process.

I turned to whisper to Gene "Wow, he sure doesn't need any help, and remember what I said about the bounty hunter thing-holy shit, he's done already!" it was true, all the men were now wearing handcuffs.

I groaned and said dryly "Need any help?"

He laughed. "Nope, thanks any ways"

After we had moved back to Colorado and gotten settled back in, I decided to go creek walking like I did every year. I had my scooter on my back (since the movers destroyed my bike) and was picking my way carefully upstream and looking up every time I heard a bike go by. The time I didn't look up (I had just rammed my knee into a log… ouch) I heard a tire skid a bit and then a familiar voice…

"Hi Samantha."

I looked up quickly and just grinned. "Here I thought that if I moved back nobody would notice."

Sam grinned as he watched me search for a place to get up on the trail where he was. "I'm glad you moved back. Me and Jake thought we saw you a few days ago around the buildings behind Habitat… hey, was that you?"

"Yep, I've been back for a couple weeks now. How have you guys been?"

"Good you?"

"Great."

"Damn that was fun, even now I still remember how I beat those morons" Spike reached for another cookie.

I grinned and said: "Yeah now we're all in one big group (I tried to sound professional) Bounty Hunters Anonymous ah it has such a nice ring to it" everybody snorted and continued eating. "Hey", I said. "At least now I can pay the insurance for my beautiful Cobra".

"Insurance nothing", Hilda said sarcastically. "You have space dock rental fees, repair and maintenance fees…"

"Yeah yeah, I get it." Gene laughed and glanced towards the kitchen. "Ah here comes more food, and I don't mean the beautiful women carrying it." Faye and Melfina walked out carrying plates of food.

I nudged Jim and whispered "No wonder they both looked up, those are their ladies." Jim laughed.

"Ah how pretty, bananas out the nose," I muttered randomly. Aisha laughed hysterically and Edward did cartwheels. I looked at my watch randomly and sighed.

"Guys I'm not interrupting on purpose but I gotta go now see ya" I walked to the center of the room and apparated back home. After I returned to my bedroom, I was so exhausted that I barely changed back into my pajamas before falling asleep.

The next day, I hung out with Sam and Jake like old times. Jake was telling stories of things I missed while in Washington.

"So, one day," Jake started dramatically. "Sam decided he was gonna make up a parody to Chop Sueyand sing it while walking around. You do know the song right?"

"Yeah I know it." I said while picking at a stick.

"Okay, so I had just gotten to the part where it goes 'when angels deserve to die' and I was singing 'when mustard deserves to die' instead when my foot hit a patch of ice and I fell and landed right on my ass." Sam said after punching Jake's shoulder.

"That caused him to make an interesting alteration to the song… he sang 'when mustard deserves to… OH SHIT!' instead ."

I laughed. "You guys are good at describing things, I feel like I was there."

"We wish you had been."

"Jim found this in the government listings page" Spike sounded impressed that Jim had hacked into the site. "A 100,000 reward in any currency, this guy is wanted dead or alive."

"Wow, did Ed help him at all?" I asked suspiciously.

"Not that I know of…" Spike bent to whisper the rest. "I personally think that he has a crush on her…strange as it may seem."

"Jim and…EDWARD!" Now I was laughing so hard my face turned red. Melfina and Faye walked out of the kitchen.

"Lunch is ready for those who want to eat now." Faye sounded tired. Spike grinned at her. "Faye, you have flour on your nose." Spike sounded bored.

"I do? Where?"

"Right...no...hold still a minute… there got it." Everybody laughed. Spike had just been working on the Swordfish and he had grease all over his hands, face and the rest of him too.

"Faye, you have grease all over your nose." I was still laughing. She however looked mortified. "Ok, Spike, you've had your fun, go get cleaned up" Julia looked very stern as she said it.

"Oh all right, might as well." He gave Faye an apologetic smile as he passed.

About a week later I arrived early in the morning, while Spike was still working on his morning workout. Beads of sweat ran down his face as he tried out different disarming techniques. He finished and looked up.

"Oh hi, Samantha, you're up early."

"Yeah", I said. "Pretty unusual for me , huh. So what're you up to?" Spike wiped his face and offered me a cup of coffee.

"Nothing much, oh you'll be pleased to know that I'm finally gonna get a car, I phoned Lawrence about an hour ago and he said he had a blue 1974 Cobra/Mustang on layaway. He also said it needed a lot of work, but otherwise it's a good car."

I sipped my coffee and said "Well, I'll probably be at the pool later, wanna bring it by and show me-if it runs?"

Spike grinned. "Lawrence said it ran fine, but it needed a paint touch up, a couple of new fan belts plus he said he could get me a new engine for it. One that doesn't guzzle gas like no tomorrow."

"So how much is this old relic?"

"50,000 Wong, but that's including the new engine. Jeez, and I thought working on the Swordfish was a pain in the ass." I finished my coffee and smiled.

"So, how are things going with you and Julia-if you don't mind my asking?" Spike smiled. "Well, the relationship is fine, thank god, but I'm still kinda pissed off at her for not telling me she was still alive." I grinned and we both sat in silence remembering…

"So, you want a job?" I looked over the woman in front of me. She was tall, and mildly athletic. Her hair was hidden under a scarf, but I guessed by her complexion that she had blond hair. She smiled and said "Yes, I know that you probably don't need another person, but I wanted to get into the bounty hunting business and I heard that if I needed any help, you people were the ones I should come to."

I sighed. "Ok, what experience do you have with weapons and do you even have any of the required licenses?" She looked at her feet.

"I was once part of a syndicate, our boss forced us to learn to handle weapons and handle them well. As far as licenses go, I have a driver's license, a weapons license but no bounty hunters license."

I smiled. "Well, you have to get a license first off, second, we all have to approve of you, but I don't think you'll have any problems fitting in." She followed me inside and I told everyone about her.

"All we need now is a name to call you" Jim said.

Again she looked down. "Call me…Julie. It's my favorite name."

"What about your real name?" Spike asked.

"That doesn't matter anymore, I'm trying to forget the past and move forward. My real name reminds me too much of my past." Spike opened his eyes and looked her over.

"If you think that's bad, just try being me. I have to live with the past and what it's done to me. I, like you belonged to a syndicate at one time, along with the woman I loved. But thanks to the people I once called friends… she is now dead." He closed his eyes again. Julie looked uncomfortable.

I tried to liven things up. "Um, at least you both have things in common- both of you are trying to forget the past and both of you once belonged to a syndicate. Hmm, I smell a possible friendship."

Jim laughed. "The only thing you smell is a freshly caught fish being cleaned." Everybody laughed. I scowled and looked away.

"That's ok, Samantha", Spike smiled over at me. "At least you tried, but Jim finished it."

"Well goodie for him. Um Julie, do you even have a place to live?"

Julie looked embarrassed. "I, um, no."

Spike sat up. "We have a couple of extra rooms in this place, you could live here, but out of every bounty you catch, you have to donate a small part to help pay rent-it's only fair." Julie bowed respectfully.

"Thank you so much, I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem, besides, you shouldn't be out on the streets, not with all the psychos out there looking for a good time."

Julie pulled out a .45 and smiled. "I can defend myself, wow I actually have the safety on this thing for a change." We all laughed. I volunteered my services to help her bring her things over, but she declined.

"All the things I have left are in this sack…I had to sell everything to get a place to stay."

Hilda walked forward. "Tomorrow you and me go shopping and no excuses, I have too much money laying around anyway. And you probably need some clothes." Julie bowed again. I took her to her room. She unpacked a black sweater, some jeans and a long black leather jacket. She looked proud of it.

"I've had this since I left Mars, an old friend helped me pick it out. We had just pulled off a huge deal and I had a lot of money so he and I went to the mall. (she smiled) He saw it and said he thought it would look good on me. I tried it on and he said 'Ok that settles it, you get that and I'll get this.' He was great at picking out anything suede or leather, and he got something that looked perfect on him. I think it was tan or brown suede with fleece lining yeah, come to think of it, it was an old bomber jacket. Anyway, unlike our boss, he wasn't into the long black trenchcoat stuff. He didn't want to look like a murderer."

I looked at the jacket and smiled. "He must've had good taste, this is beautiful."

After about a week, summer had kicked into full swing. Everybody was wearing light shirts and shorts (except for the guys, of course) most of the women were even going bra less. You could tell that Spike and Julie had gotten quite close. Just the way he looked at her (I wish he'd look at me like that ). Spike had found out that Julie was once a part of the Red Dragon crime Mafia. (Great, I'd said. You guys have stuff in common. They had then both called me a smart ass) Since it turned out that they both knew Vicious, they had a lot to discuss about him, not to mention the voodoo doll Julie said she kept (that was mostly charred and had about a hundred pins stuck in it) and the picture Spike had of him, Julia and Vicious. Spike said he'd cut Vicious' part off and burned it. Julie still insisted that she keep her hair up, but every once in a while, a lock of gold blond hair would sneak out from under the head scarf. One day about 2 months after Julie came to stay with us Lennon was still trying to get Spike in bed with her.

But this time, Julie came to his rescue. "Look if he doesn't want to sleep with a slut then leave him alone."

Lennon glared at Julie. "Now see here, most guys would kill for the chance to have sex with me."

Spike looked revolted. "I'm not most guys, dumb shit." Then Spike walked out of the room with Julie.

"Thanks for the rescue" Spike muttered. "Hey, would you give me a hand with something?" "What?" Spike started handing her stuff.

"Here, hold this, and these and this and those. Careful with the wrench, it cost 200 Wong. Expensive little thing isn't it?" Julie nodded and followed Spike out to the work shop.

"I know it really isn't any of my business, but what is all this stuff for?" Julie asked. Spike glanced over at her.

"Well if you'll be patient and follow me I'll show you." He unlocked the door to the shop and they walked inside.

"Oh my god, is that a Swordfish 2? I haven't seen one in years." Julie breathed. Spike walked over to take the stuff.

"Since I'm probably never going to catch you with your hands full, I think I'll take advantage of you." Julie looked at him.

"What do you mean…" she trailed off as he kissed her. To herself she thought. _Has he kissed so many women since me that it's no longer a good thing? Here I am over reacting because it's been so long and for him, it's no big deal. _He pulled away.

"Have we met before?"

"What makes you say that?"

"It's just…I feel like I've kissed you before." She glanced at him.

"Um, I'm certain I've never seen you before."

"Really?" he looked at her suspiciously. She looked at him.

"You don't believe me?" she noticed he was slowly moving towards her.

"Oh I believe you (moved closer), its just I feel strongly about you, like I did that woman I told you about." He was right in front of her now. "What I need is to somehow channel those feelings to you." He slipped his arms around her and held her to him. They walked over under one of the wings on the Swordfish and she turned to face him. He kissed her and slipped his hands under her shirt. She gasped and continued kissing him. Within a few minutes, they were on the large blanket he had stored under the wing still kissing. Spike slipped her shirt off and drew in a deep breath. He stopped kissing her long enough to whisper: "Should we take this inside?" She grinned.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, we could get caught. What's wrong with out here?" he kissed her neck and muttered

"Not enough room, silly." She smiled and bent her body up against his. He could feel himself responding. "There's no turning back now. Do you want this?" For an answer, she started kissing him again.


	3. flashbacks and bounties

**MystikalCherryBlossom: growls at disclaimer**

**Disclaimer: is annoying**

**MystikalCherryBlossom: fine fine... i do not own anything to do with Cowboy Bebop except for my special storyline here, Ryan Speigal, aaaaaaaaaaand... thinking well whatever pops up like random bounty names e.t.c. There, are you finally fing happy you foul, you evil...**

**Disclaimer: is happy**

**MystikalCherryBlossom: kk, enjoy all**

"For god's sake, Samantha. Do you ever have fun?" I looked up from my work.

"You're one to talk, Ryan. You who never gets out and has a good time. Damn this heat is making me go crazy." I threw down my books and said "I'm going swimming, wanna come?" Ryan looked at me like I was an alien. "Why the hell should I?" I stared at him.

"Hey I was just being nice, I won't make that mistake again. Faye, wanna come swimming?" Faye grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."

Julie moaned softly as she rolled over. The sun was just setting and even in this remote spot, you could hear the argument from inside the house. She could feel a gentle hand stroke her back. "You seemed pretty tired, (an evil grin appeared on Spike's face) most of the time, only virgins act this way." Julie smiled.

"I'm not a virgin it's just been so long since I've had sex. 6 years to be exact." He kissed her cheek before making a reply.

"6 years? That's a very long time. Too long I think. Yet who am I to talk? It's been 6 years for me too." Julie looked at him. Then, she looked down.

"Good grief, I'm naked. And I'm still too warm." Then she looked over at him, eyes darkening as they traveled over his body. "Hmm, you have a very nice body." she said. Spike glanced at her and looked down her body.

"You know something, you have a very familiar body. Are you sure you haven't been with me before? I know that I've touched you before. I know that I've made love with you before." She stroked his back and then moved her hands to his chest.

"I don't think I've been with you before, I'd have remembered something like this. This is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful."

Me and Ryan were still arguing when Hilda came back from her motocross race. She interrupted long enough to ask where Spike was then left. I looked at Ryan.

"What does she want Spike for I wonder…" Ryan grinned.

"Maybe something on her bike broke. He is a master at working on bikes and planetary travelers. Just look at what he does to fix that damn Swordfish of his." I grinned.

"Is this an official peace treaty? I mean between us…" I asked.

He laughed. "You wish. But yeah, I'm tired of arguing." To himself he thought, _If she only knew…_

A knock on the workshop door went unheard by the people inside. But after about 5 more knocks, Spike finally heard it.

"Oh shit, people are looking for us." Julie sat up.

"Spike don't answer it. Maybe they don't know we're out here." Hilda stood outside tapping her foot.

"Come on, I know you're in there. I just need you to take a look at my bike, I think there's something wrong with the brakes." Spike looked at Julie.

"Really, they really don't know we're in here, huh? Boy (pulled on pants) that's interesting. Cover yourself up, woman or be prepared to spend a month in here." Julie glared at him.

"Well we can always continue this later." She stood up and grinned at Spike. Then she pulled her shirt and shorts back on and perched herself on the wing of the Swordfish. Spike shook his head and opened the door.

"'Bout time, what're you up to in there? Taking the Swordfish apart piece by piece by piece?" "Alright so I was busy all day, so sue me. Where's the bike and did you win anything?" Hilda shook her head.

"All I won is a huge scrape on my leg and a beat up bike. I skidded on one of the turns and fell. Needless to say, I was disqualified. Well here she is (wheels bike into shop). Pretty bad, huh?" Spike looked over the bike.

"Oh boy, this is gonna take some work. Hey, Julie make yourself useful and help me take this stuff off , just hold this…" Hilda grinned.

"I didn't know she was your assistant, when did that happen?"

Spike grinned. "She was just sitting there so I thought I'd put her to work. Got a problem with that?" Hilda grinned.

"Nope, just wondering."

A week later we (me and Jim) finally found a suitable bounty to catch. I was the one to tell Spike and the others.

"Well, we finally got a decent size bounty to catch. He is Asimov Zalaricane of the Red Dragon Clan, he is wanted for 15 counts of voluntary manslaughter, grand theft, kidnapping and rape. 2.3 million Wong."

Spike looked up. "Asimov? That kid? The last time I saw him, he was too scared to do anything." Julie was looking horrified.

"Poor Asimov", She whispered. Spike looked over at her.

"You knew him too? Wow, you knew everybody didn't you?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Okay, let's go catch him and take it easy on him."

An hour later, we arrived at theabandoned warehousewhere he was. When we got there, he looked up instantly. But he was too busy staring at Spike to notice us surrounding him.

"Spike, it's been a very long time, but I thought you were with Julia, where is she?" Spike looked away.

"She is dead, Asimov. You can thank Vicious for that. And I'm a bounty hunter now, you might want to just give up, you are surrounded." Asimov glared.

"Go to hell, betrayer. You not only betrayed Vicious, but now me too. I thought we were friends, I was wrong." Asimov pulled out a gun and shot just as Spike did. Spike clutched his arm and Asimov went down. Julie walked out from where she was, but she was barely recognizable. Beautiful long blond hair fell nearly to her waist and tears streamed from her eyes. Although she was sad, she still looked beautiful. Asimov gasped.

"So I'm dead already, I have to be or you wouldn't be here, Julia. So how are you doing, do you miss Spike? He looks good enough." By now Spike was staring open-mouthed at Julie-sorry-Julia. "Did you know he is a bounty hunter now? He was the one who killed me you know." Julia clenched her fists.

"Stop it Asimov, how could you confuse me with someone I have never heard of?"

"You have her hair, her eyes, and her body. Don't lie to me Julia." She was breathing very hard and fast now. Her hands went to her hair and she turned sheet white.

"Oh no. How could I have lost it…" Asimov suddenly started coughing and died suddenly. I walked over to Spike and looked at his arm.

"We'd better get you home so you can get that looked at."

"That can wait." He looked at me. "If this is who I think it is, it can definitely wait." He walked over to Julia. "Are you…are you Julia? Please be honest." She looked at him, making the mistake of looking directly into his eyes. She took a deep breath.

"Yes, I am Julia." She was still crying.

"How could you lie to me?" Spike asked. She looked down.

"I am so sorry, but I had to, I couldn't just go and reveal who I was right away. You wouldn't have believed me anyway, would you?" Spike gave her a wan smile.

"No, I wouldn't have believed you. Its good that you still know how I think." She looked at him again. He walked closer to her and wrapped his good arm around her, holding her tightly. "You don't even know how much I've missed you." She looked at him.

"I think I can guess." with that, she kissed him. I stared at both of them. (turning green with envy of course: -D) we went home and Rose checked out Spike's arm and healed it. He went upstairs and leaned up against his doorway, waiting for the woman he loved, the one he'd thought he lost forever. After a few minutes, she came upstairs and would've walked right past him if he hadn't touched her arm lightly. She jumped lightly and turned to face him.

"Why don't you sleep with me?" he asked. "I think my bed is a little more comfortable anyway." She grinned.

"Oh hell why not?"

end flashback

"Yeah that was interesting, how she lied to me." Spike sighed. "But I think that I can forgive her, as long as she is alive and safe." He walked over to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. Julia walked downstairs and smiled at both of us.

"Good morning, Samantha, Spike." She walked into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. "Isn't it a little early for you to be up and around?" Julia seemed to be waking up a bit more.

"Well, I couldn't go back to sleep, so I thought I'd drop by." She grinned as she finished her coffee. Everybody was starting to come downstairs by now, so I decided to leave and save everybody a little embarrassment.

About a week later, we were out catching a bounty and we were running into some trouble. I was sent out front to fight, but I ,unfortunately, was up against a martial arts expert and losing miserably. Spike walked out and stopped the fight briefly. Then he walked over to me and said "I thought you were a black belt? Are you telling me they didn't even teach you how to disarm opponents?" I wiped sweat off my face and glared at him.

"Well I wasn't exactly taught by an expert like you, they only taught me the basics."

"Oh I see, let me finish this." With that, he was in the fight. The other man seemed overwhelmed when he couldn't even land a good hit. Eventually, Spike beat the crap out of our bounty, and we turned him in. Afterwards, we went to Clyde's bar to get something to eat and drink.

"You know", Spike said. "I wouldn't mind teaching you how to fight better. You are already very skilled, or you couldn't have held out as long as you did." I looked up from my sushi and grinned.

"Well, that would be interesting, considering I'm a fast learner. I just hope you don't regret your offer." He smiled.

"I won't, count on it."

As it was summer, I was basically living at the pool. Sam and Jake would join me and often times me and Sam would be there until almost 10 at night. One night, he came back to my house with me and we hung out on the front porch. Our porch light was burned out so I brought out a couple candles and a box of wooden matches. Sam ended up lighting a small pile of matches on fire and pouring wax on it to make a small bonfire. I could see him grinning in the firelight.

"I think we should do this more often, just get together and burn stuff."

From that, an idea was born to hold "candle burnings". We'd get together in my backyard where there was a huge concrete slab and just burn stuff. I'd bring out a pitcher of water and squirt bottle full of water. One time, I was trying to put out a small fire that was getting out of hand with the squirt bottle and flames shot up so high that they almost burned me. Sam and Jake were basically rolling around laughing their asses off.

A month later, we were up against a gang even we couldn't defeat. They were swordsmen so of course, we sent Suzuka out front. She tried a Tao spell; they blocked it. After she was beaten, a hooded figure wielding a katana sword stepped up front. Whoever this was, he was a hell of a lot better than we were. In five moves, he beat almost all of the men. They started shouting and cleared out. Our rescuer started laughing as he slipped his sword back in its sheath. As he walked past me I complimented him on his skill.

"Wow, you are really good, where did you learn to fight like that?" I couldn't see his face, but I was sure he grinned at me.

"Oh, I taught myself. Before I was humiliated out of my old gang, I used my skills a lot. Spike would know that better than anyone." Spike looked at the man.

"First Julia, and now you. I suppose you still want to settle the fight, to where you win." The man took off his hood and smiled.

"If I still wanted to kill you, I would've already and I wouldn't have helped you." I ignored them and went to make sure everyone else was okay. Julia was shaking her head.

"Not again, it was the same last time. He started off nice, but turned out to be power hungry." I glanced at her.

"How exactly?"

"He just craves power. Never has been able to get over that. That's how I fell in love with Spike, I hated how Vicious was."

"So that's who our charming rescuer is?"

Julia looked at me for a minute. "Unfortunately, yes."

"Oh, I see. So that guy is still rolling around-wonderful." Julia laughed.

"Who knows, maybe he changed."

"Well, they aren't fighting, so I think it's safe to go over there-I hope…"

"Jim, what the hell do you mean; I thought the Red Dragon Clan broke up after we arrested everybody?" Jim looked at me.

"Well Samantha, they were held on bail, and somebody paid it. Plus we got a video-mail from this really creepy guy. He was heavily cloaked and used a voice disguise device, this is so goddamn frustrating even Ed cant figure it out. Well the guy told us to go to the old hang-out for the clan BUT WE DON'T KNOW WHERE THE HELL IT IS! Damn." Jim hung his head and sighed loudly.

"It's on Mars." Jim's head shot up. Spike sat up.

"What do you mean it's on Mars?" Jim said

Spike gave a rather evil smile.

"I would know where it is about 3 years ago I was the one who partially destroyed it."

"Okay, it's settled, but Spike if you think for one minute you're going alone you are nuts." "Samantha, I have to settle this myself. It's my past, I have to deal with it."

"Spike, Samantha has a good point, and besides it's my past too." Julia smiled.

"Fine, we all go together," he sighed. "But I'm warning you all, don't help me beat the traitor, whoever it is, got it?" _Yeah_, I thought. _We get it._

4 and a half hours later, we arrived at the old place. The building was clearly still in bad shape, the entire top floor was still missing (remember when either Spike or Vicious blew it up as a distraction?) and most of the windows were blown out. Spike checked his gun to make sure it was loaded.

"This hasn't changed since the last time I was here, and that was a while ago… look out!" a barrage of gun fire peppered the ground where we previously stood.

"Okay, here is how its gonna be, I go in and head directly to the top floor, or what's left of it anyway. Julia, Samantha and Hilda go to the left, Jim, Gene and Aisha go to the right. The rest of you scatter through the building. Got it?"

Julia smiled.

"Just be careful, if you get killed… I'll bitch you out when I see you next."


	4. A ghostly premonition

**MystikalCherryBlossom:Okay ppl, heres my eeeeevil disclaimer...**

**Disclaimer: growls and acts all disclaimer-like**

**MystikalCherryBlossom: hangs head Nope, i still dont Spike or anyone like that, but i do own Ryan yippee and the character-ish people that hang around me.**

**Disclaimer: smiles approvingly**

Spike grinned and walked inside. A few minutes later there were 3 huge explosions, then me and Hilda sneaked in. Three men with machine guns stepped out in front of us.

"Well, well, well. A kid and an ugly broad. I think we'll have some fun before we kill you." I grinned at Hilda.

"Ok, you know what to do" I whispered. One of the men grabbed my hand and twisted it up and around my back.

"Heh heh, not even gonna try to fight? You'll be easy heh,heh,heh." I yawned and quickly twisted out of the hold, elbowing the man in the stomach as I went.

"Knock him out or he'll be right back up." Hilda bellowed as she did the same thing that she suggested. Suddenly, gunshots rang out and all three went down. Julia smiled at us. We thanked her and moved forwards. Soon we came to a badly burned area which smelled of blood and burning flesh.

"He sure did a pretty thorough job, didn't he?" I asked, holding my nose as I went. Hilda and Julia both snickered.

"Well hello there." We whirled to face Vicious. We suddenly heard a yell.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Spike yelled.

"This is MY fight." We moved back but were ensnared by rope nets. _Wonderful, now we have to watch. _I thought. Julia moved forwards slightly.

"Vicious, let us go, please. Or at least Samantha. She is way too young to die." Vicious smiled evilly.

"If Spike wins, you may all go-if not well, you die immediately." Spike sighed and re-loaded his gun.

"One pass, that's it" he said. "Let's finish this." Spike shot as Vicious made a long butterfly slice. Vicious smiled as a long red line appeared on Spike's shirt. He gasped and looked at Vicious.

"But I had to of hit him, I had to."

I, meanwhile, had broken free of my net and slowly sneaked up behind Vicious. But Spike was too fast. In a second he had Vicious' sword in his hand. "Goodbye, old friend." He slit Vicious' throat in one fluid move. Vicious looked shocked as he fell choking to the ground. Spike smiled and also fell. Julia ran to him tears starting to fall from her eyes. I dropped to my knees beside him. His eyes opened suddenly and he grinned.

"Damn did I have you guys going." Julia glared at him.

"You… you… jackass" he sat up and smiled.

"Hey, I am hurt you know (he lifted his arm) when Vicious tried to slice me open, I moved my arm down and he got that instead." (he explained for my benefit) I looked at his arm and almost fainted. It had been sliced open right down to the bone.

"Come on you idiot, lets get you home so Rose can heal this."

"That looked so painful." I said about a month later when we were discussing past jobs.

"How did you move so fast though?" Spike glanced up from the book he was reading.

"I'm honestly not sure, all I know is that I saw the blade coming and I thought, well I don't want a repeat of last time, remember?" I growled at my schoolwork and sighed.

"Yeah I remember, poor Faye." I muttered. Spike glared at me.

"What do you mean poor FAYE! How about poor me?" he laughed.

"Idiot" I muttered as I tossed a cushion at his face. Then I returned my attention to my school work. About an hour later, Jim came out into the living room and sat down with his laptop. "You guys are gonna love this." He said as he typed. "It appears that the government site has a firewall now- I cant hack through it. Oh, um, hey Ed." He stuttered as Edward swung off the ceiling fan and landed next to him.

"Ed can help" Ed said laughing as she attached a cable to her computer and Jim's. "Ed to firewall, firewall to Ed, where's your weakness firewall?" she asked as she cocked her head to one side. "Oh here's your weakness, enter Ed's password, unlocked." Jim and me clapped.

"Uh hey, Ed, would you um… umm… would you go out with me? Just one time?" me and Spike tried desperately to stifle our laughter. Ed cocked her head again.

"Go out with? Go where?"

"Um out to dinner?"

"What is wrong with Ed and Jim eating here?" by now Spike and I were laughing hysterically.

"Poor Jim." I said breathlessly.

"Yeah poor Jim. I just wish Ed wasn't so damn clueless." Jim looked crestfallen. Then he kissed Ed and ran. Spike and I were standing there with our jaws on the floor.

"Did you see that or was I momentarily delusional?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah, I saw that, but where did he go?"

"Probably to ask Alex or Ryan what he did wrong…"

"Hey, it wasn't our idea." Ryan said as both he and Alex walked downstairs as we were talking.

"We don't even know what he did; what did he do?" Alex asked.

"He asked Edward out to dinner." Me and Spike chorused. Alex looked at me.

"You're kidding I hope."

"No, I'm not"

"Wow, and he has a crush on her too? How brave of him." Ryan merely laughed.

"How stupid…how'd he make out? Did she turn him down or did she accept?"

"Neither."

"Ah shit, poor guy, I'm gonna go find him." With that, Ryan left. Suddenly, Jim and Edward both ran in the room and deposited a laptop on the table.

"Look at this, does this make sense to you?" all of us gathered around the computer.

"2.5 million woolongs, but they won't give any of the bounty hunters an arrest warrant? Why?" Jim shook his head.

"I don't know, and they didn't say."

"The only reason they don't give us warrants is if too many people have died trying to catch this guy." Julia sighed.

"They should've asked us to go after this guy, we'd have caught him by now." Spike grinned. "Or just tell Faye to go after him, but she might kill him. She's a little too trigger happy." We all laughed at this one. Faye turned bright red.

"Hey. I've saved your asses with my supposed trigger happiness."

"Yeah, whatever Faye." "well about this bounty, who wants to go to the cop shop with me and dispute this little rule?" Spike asked.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. That is the rule. No warrants for Mad Moody are to be issued to any bounty hunter or the officer that issues them gets fired." The desk sergeant looked positively harassed. Julia walked over to Spike and whispered something in his ear. He looked at her and nodded. She walked forwards.

"Listen, Sergeant Merle, you only get fired if one of us gets killed, and besides (she put her hands together) we desperately need the money. If we don't get the money, I'll have nowhere to live and neither will my friends. Please sergeant, please give us the warrant. I promise one of us will bring him in." The desk sergeant wiped his eyes.

"Okay, I guess I could, but if I get fired because you guys don't catch him, I'll sue!" Julia sighed in relief.

"Thank you so much, sergeant." She took the slip of paper and bowed as we walked outside. When we got outside, I burst out laughing.

"Julia, that was the best performance I've seen yet, but why? Money isn't really that tight is it?" She gave a dazzling smile. "No, our money situation is fine. I was merely putting on an act to get the sergeant to give us the damn warrant. The name Mad Moody sounds kind of stupid, I hope we catch him." Just then, her cell phone rang. "Hello? Oh hi Mrs. Williamson. Oh I'd love to watch Cynthia for you, she is such a little angel, all she does is study though. Tonight? (looks mildly annoyed) No, I won't be busy. Sure, I'll see you about 7:30? Okay, see ya then, bye." She put her phone back in her pocket and sighed. "Sorry guys, but I can't go with you." Spike put an arm around her shoulders.

"Maybe it's better that way. If this guy has killed so many people, I'd prefer that you stay at home." Julia glared at him.

"Aw Julia, don't worry, I'll go with him." I piped up. Spike shook his head.

"Wonderful, trade one for the other. I think we'll bring Jet with us, he really needs to get out more." I glanced at him.

"Jet? Isn't he a little old to be doing this still?"

"He's older than me and he knows more about this business than you do. And I'd like some backup that knows what they're doing. No offense or anything but I want some one who might actually have heard of this guy before." After that, we headed back to the shop.

At 7:30, Mrs. Williamson arrived with Cynthia, the little girl that Julia was going to be babysitting. After she was dropped off, Jet, Spike and I left for the construction site where 'Mad Moody' was. When we arrived, the man turned around and looked at us.

"More bounty hunters? Oh well. But if you want to re consider, you may still leave." Spike glared at the man.

"No way. We didn't go to all the trouble to get that warrant for nothing and I'm gonna to bring you in."

The man chuckled. "Oh well, your funeral I guess. Literally. Didn't you know that I've killed every police officer and every bounty hunter that they've sent after me? And I only got shot once, after that, no one has been able to hurt me at all."

Spike's eyes narrowed.

"So we have somebody who is all talk and no action?" Moody sneered.

"I prefer to let the opposing force try to land the first hit."

"If you say so. Prepare for a life in prison" As he said that, Spike tried one of his best techniques on the man (one that never missed before), but the man dodged it by rising up in the air and Spike was left falling into the pit at the center of the site. Both me and Jet ran to the edge of the railing. But the man flew after Spike.

"No, I shouldn't let you die so soon, after all, I haven't even landed a good hit yet." The man appeared to catch Spike, but then he held up his hand as it morphed into a three pronged claw. The man then tossed Spike up into the air and swiped him with the claw. Three huge gashes appeared on his shoulder. Then he let Spike fell to the ground, 70 feet below. He fought to get up but Moody stood above him, wielding a spear. Then he stabbed Spike with it. Spike stood up and pulled out his gun. He aimed at the gas tank that was behind Moody. Before he shot, he yelled back up to us.

"Jet, get Samantha out of here and don't let her come back. I started this alone, I will finish it alone." Then he flashed us a charming smile aimed and fired.

"Come on, Samantha, if we don't get out of here now, we're gonna be barbecued alive." I tried to fight, but I was too tired. The gas tank exploded as we ran out of the construction area. Meanwhile back in the pit, Mad Moody was calmly floating above Spike's charred body. "Stupid youngster, didn't even realize what I am. He doesn't even know that I'm a zombie! HOLY SHIT, HE'S STILL ALIVE!" Moody flew down next to Spike. "How can you still be alive after that explosion?" Spike grinned and fell in a heap of burning rubble, dead.

"There we go." Moody said grinning. "Now I'll destroy your body." Moody held up a scythe now and he raised it in the air.

"Just a minute there, Moody." A voice said from behind Moody.

"What the hell…"

Spike stood there laughing. "Only a zombie can destroy a fellow zombie. Ironic isn't it? You kill me and give me the power to destroy you at the same time. " Spike held up a sword. "Goodbye, Moody." With that, he sliced Moody in half; each half disappearing as it was created.

"I can't believe I wasted my life on that." Spike said, sounding disappointed. "Wait a minute…" He walked over to his body and sighed. "I wonder if I could possibly…"

Jet crept into the shop and went upstairs quietly.

"I don't believe it. He's really dead this time."

I woke up the next day about 1:30pm. I couldn't remember what happened though.

"I wonder how Spike finally brought that guy in", I muttered to myself. A loud beeping sound startled me. "Aah haah, oh it's just my transmitter. Hello? Hey, Jet. What happened last night? All I remember is an explosion. WHAT! You are kidding I hope. Does Julia know? Oh, okay. Hmm? Sure I'll be there." I ended the call and sat there for a minute staring at the blank screen on the small device that I held. "He's gone? He can't be. He just can't be."

Julia awoke alone that morning.

"Spike never came home last night? I wonder what happened…"

At 3:30, I met Jet at the pool near the shop.

"So, how and when are we going to tell Julia about this?" I asked. Jet shook his head.

"I'd prefer to not tell her at all. But if we have to, then we have to. But I still believe that somehow, he is still alive."

I smiled. "I sure hope so."


	5. memories and meetings

_Disclaimer: acts all disclaimer-y_

_MystikalCherryBlossom: is annoyed okay fine fine... i do not own Spike, Faye, Jet, or any of those good folks. ummm... i DO own Ryan grins evilly and yeah... enjoy this chapter folks! i am going to update it a bit after the next chapter goes up. i think i'll have to... lol_

_Ryan: you own me eh? we'll just see about that one..._

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Julia walked downstairs about 3:45. She ran into Spike as she walked into the living room. "Spike! what happened last night?" He grinned. "It's a long story. Have you seen Jet?" Julia thought for a minute before answering.

"I think he went over to the pool, I'm not quite sure though." Spike smiled. "Works for me. I'll be over at the pool if you need me."

I went back to my house to change into my bathing suit. When I came back out, I had to run all the way back. As I ran around the corner, I almost crashed headlong into 2 girls on roller blades. They screamed and scattered out of the way. Jet laughed and called after them.

"Hey, kids, she cant hurt you, I mean it's not like she's on her bike or anything like that." The two girls smiled and introduced themselves and apologized for being in the way to begin with. As we were talking I heard someone dive into the pool. I looked over and sure enough you could see somebody was swimming underwater.

"Who was that?" I asked Jet.

"Hell if I know. So who is going to head our operation now that Spike is gone?" We suddenly heard the sound of somebody clearing their throat. We whirled to face the dripping figure who was leaning on the side of the pool grinning.

"What, do you people have something against me heading the operation? And who said anything about me being gone? I'm getting the feeling that you guys don't like me too much anymore." He sighed.

Jet and me looked at each other for a minute.

"Spike… are you a ghost or are you really here?" I asked. He flashed a smile at me.

"Yeah, I'm really here. You thought I was dead?"

"Uh well…"

"I thought so. That tells me how much faith you guys have in me. Well you were right, I was dead. Was being the operative word. But at least I finally took care of that guy."

I stared at him. "Hey, didn't you get hurt at all?"

"Yeah I did. But when I… came back to life, all that was hurt was my jacket and shirt. Oh well, guess I got lucky that time."

I laughed. "This makes 3 times that you've been dead. You can thank Vicious for the first 2 times and Mad Moody for this time." Spike looked at me.

"No, thank my stupidity for the first time." I looked at him.

"You? Stupid! Don't make me laugh." He got out of the pool and walked over to me.

"Samantha, everyone has their stupid moments. Me included. Nobody's perfect you know." With that he turned around and began to dive into the pool. I snuck up behind him and pushed him into the pool. Unfortunately, he grabbed my hand and pulled me in the pool after him.

"Son of a bitch! Why'd you do that?" He laughed and shook his hair out of his face.

"'Every action has an opposite and equal reaction'. Don't you know Newton's laws? 'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.'You push, I pull and laugh my ass of at your lack of grace."

"Idiot", I muttered.

"Hey, Mind if I join you guys?" We turned around. Julia stood there carrying a towel. Spike grinned at me.

"Sure" we chorused. She grinned at all three of us and set her towel on a lawn chair. Julia dove gracefully into the pool. Spike grinned at me again.

"Remember what I said about your lack of grace. Use Julia as your example." With that, he swam off. We spent the entire day at the pool. Spike ended up throwing both me and Julia in to the pool a lot. I landed wrong each time, but amazingly Julia kept her grace, somehow being able to turn the fall into a dive each time.

Later that night, I was already at the shop for our night time meetings when I noticed Ryan was acting very strangely. Instead of his normal bitchy self, he was acting very nicely towards me. Lennon noticed that too and she didn't even begin to hesitate to make fun of him for it.

"Aww, little Ryan finally finished his PMS stage. I'm so proud." Ryan turned blood-red. Then he turned to me.

"Doesn't that slut ever turn off? Any ways I have a birthday present for you. Follow me." We went outside together. It was a beautiful perfect summer night. There was a full moon and the stars shone brightly. Ryan turned to face me.

"Here you go, I got you a new pocket knife." He handed it to me and I gasped; it was the exact same one I had been looking longingly at in the Serrie's knife shop in Tharsis on Mars.

"Ryan… I don't know what to say. I never expected anything this nice from you." I didn't notice how close he'd gotten to me and when I looked up, our faces were less than an inch away from each other. He smiled a nervous smile and kissed me.

"You see that?" Spike and everyone else were inside watching us through the back door. "That's why he's been so damn nervous. Poor Samantha, she looks like she's in worse shape than he is in."

Julia smiled. "At least he's finally being nice to her." Spike put his hands on Julia's shoulders. "Yeah no kidding." He pulled her face close enough to kiss and kissed her.

Ryan pulled away and I started to calm down. My heart was beating so fast I thought I was hyperventilating.

"Well", he said nervously. "I got to go, I have a shit load of homework to do. See you later." And with that, he hurried inside.

The next day when I went outside, all my friends noticed that I was a little nervously happy. Sally was the one who brought it to attention.

"What's up with you?" she asked. "It's like you're on top of the world or something. Well? What happened?" I looked at her.

"Oh nothing of any interest. But something great happened to me last night. I got a great birthday present from my friend Ryan. Remember I told you about him?"

Sally looked at me. "What did you get?" I pulled out my new pocket knife and showed it to her. She recoiled when I pulled it out. "But where did he get it?" I grinned at her.

"Serrie's knife shop in Tharsis City. It's a very prestigious store. All their stuff if so expensive thought but it's good quality, so this'll last a while."

"Can I hold it?"

"Um, I guess so, just be careful." She took it and looked it over.

"Wow, this is really pretty. Hey I got a question, when do we all get to meet this guy, and how old is he?"

"I don't know exactly when you'll get to meet him, and he's 14. But he is so nice- the exact opposite of Chad." Sally and Anna looked at each other.

"I bet he's your boyfriend." Anna said annoyingly.

"No he's not." I vehemently protested.

"Oh come on, admit it." I glared at Anna and shook my fist at her.

"I'm not telling you something that's not true. But I'll tell you this much- he likes me I think." "Ah ha, I TOLD you…"

"Anna, I'm not saying we're going out or anything. He hasn't even asked me out." Just then, Stephanie walked outside (Author's Note: I only added her to the Washington part of my story for fun and games).

"Hi Samantha, what's up?" Sally and Helen burst out with

"Samantha's got a boyfriend" before I could stop them.

"I do not, leave Ryan out of this." Stephanie started laughing.

"Of course you don't have a boyfriend. Not a cute one anyway. I bet I have a cuter boyfriend than you do." I stared.

"YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND! Since when?" she smiled.

"Since last week. So can I meet this 'Ryan' guy? Is he nice? What does he look like?" I sighed. "Ryan is not my boyfriend… he's just a really good friend."

"Yeah, that's why you're blushing."

"Oh shut up. Anyway, I think he's cute, he's really sweet, and if you want to, you can come over to the shop later today and meet him." Stephanie smiled.

"Thanks, I'll meet you at the park about 4:30. You can take me there then." With that, she turned on her heel, and left.

At 4:30, she was actually waiting for me. I groaned inwardly and walked over to her.

"You'll need your bike, its pretty far away." She grinned.

After about 15-20 minutes, we arrived at the shop. Ryan ran to greet me, holding a paper. "Samantha, you are not gonna believe this, they're letting me take the SATs early. I'm not even supposed to think about them until next year! Oh uh hi there." His excitement was interrupted by Stephanie putting in an appearance.

Later, at our late night meeting, everyone ditched after about 5 minutes. Spike said he had to take a shower; Julia said she had to go to bed so that left me and Ryan alone together. Ryan sat down next to me and opened his calculus book. Then he slammed it shut, making me jump. "You know what's weird? We started off as enemies now and we're really close." I blushed.

"Yeah. I remember how we met…

I pulled up at the Spaceport and sighed. The transport wasn't supposed to arrive for another 20 minutes but I went inside anyway. I walked straight up to the reception desk and talked to the receptionist.

"Has the 3:15 transport shuttle arrived from Tharsis yet?" I asked.

"It was actually 2 hours early because they're doing major overhauls on the gates." She said. "Are you waiting or looking for someone?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for a guy about the same age as me."

"Oh, him. Poor kid has been sitting there for about 2 hours."

I closed my eyes for a second. "Oh shit… well I'm here to pick him up now. Does he have anything with him?"

The lady sighed. "Nope, just that little backpack. No suitcases, bags, nothing. It's kind of sad he traveled all that way without any food…"

By this time, I had heard quite enough. I walked over to the hunched figure sitting on a bench and poked him lightly. He looked up and I could see bruises on his cheeks and the black eye he had. Otherwise, he might've been handsome. His black hair was a tousled mess, clothes were basically rags, they were so threadbare and his hands had fresh cuts on them. He also had sadness welled in his eyes, but was too proud looking to really show it.

"What? Am I loitering or something?" he asked. His voice was very close to Spike's voice, but a little younger.

I sighed. "Ryan Speigal?"

"Who wants to know?"

"A friend of your brother's. He asked me to come get you."

He looked away. "Yeah I'm Ryan. Who the hell are you? 'A friend' tells me nothing."

I held out my hand. "I'm Samantha. Nice to finally meet you… Spike has been talking a lot about you in the last few days-"

Ryan stood up and I noticed he was just as lanky and almost as tall as his brother. "If you don't mind, I'd rather talk on the way home, wherever that is. I… I haven't eaten in 3 days. I'd like to do something about these cuts and my face must be swollen to all hell."

"Oh, of course, I'm really sorry. Follow me."

We walked out to my car and got in. He held his backpack on his lap and I could see more of his badly cut and bruised arms.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to you?"

He sighed and tilted his head back against the seatback. "I came from an orphanage in Tharsis City… my mother owns it and she placed me in it when I was 4. The kids there aren't treated like they are in normal orphanages, we have to work hard just for a meal. When you don't do enough work…" he closed his eyes, but continued anyway. "when you don't work hard enough or long enough, they beat you. No meals."

"Your own mother put you in that hellhole? What about clothes and bathing privileges?"

He gave a wan smile. "Clothes? Ha. Once every 2 years if you're lucky. Bathing is only when the smell gets to the wardens. Since I was being sent out, they hosed me down and tried to make me look pretty. Why? Do I still smell like dirt and clay?"

"No, I was wondering about the hair…"

Ryan laughed at that one. "Oh, this mess? They don't issue brushes to males. Only the girls. It's actually kind of sexist there, the girls are treated great. 3 meals a day, clothes every 3 months and they actually get to pick them. When the girls are adopted out, they don't have to do any work for 2 weeks leading up to that. With us… am I rambling?"

I blinked and looked over at him. "Nope. I just can't believe how badly you were treated."

"What do you care? You have probably never had to work for a meal."

"I care because I hate seeing people treated this way."

"Whatever. Like I was saying, with us, it's up at 4 everyday. Breakfast for those who earned it and beatings for those who didn't. Then, it's off to the sad excuse for a school they have there and we spend about 6 to 7 hours learning basic stuff. After that, we spend from 2 until 9 doing hard labor and then we're hosed down and sent to bed."

"How long were you there?"

He sighed and kneaded his hands together. "10 years. I'm 14. I haven't had a birthday, a real birthday since I was 3. My supposed birthday was 4 days ago." He shrugged.

I pulled the car in front of the shop and stopped. "Why don't you go ahead and go inside. Rose will have a look at those cuts and bruises and you can eat something."

Ryan gave me a long look. I couldn't tell if it was gratitude or spite. "Thanks I guess. And sorry about the sob story, I tend to ramble when I don't eat. I usually get hit for it."

"It's okay… just eat something."

I came in after I'd run the errands I left for. Ryan was sitting at the big table eating. He looked a lot better than when I'd first seen him. His hair was damp and actually kind of long, the actual color of it was dark brown and it was now shiny. His hands had scars, something I was surprised at Rose for. He was also looking at a booklet with the word "Fairview" written on it in big letters.

"What's that?" I asked.

"High School course guide. Spike wants me to go there. Unfortunately I have to be tested before I can be enrolled."

"I just got tested to see where I'd be if I went to a real school… I place at 12th grade reading level!"

"Well goodie for you, " he said sourly. "I have no idea what level I'm gonna place at. What education I got was really crappy, but I am good at figuring things out, so there may be hope yet."

I sighed and walked off.

A few days later, Spike informed us that Ryan was joining the team. I sighed. Me and Ryan were not getting along at all and he was supposed to be my partner when Jim was gone. Gene, Melfina, Aisha and Suzuka had left on a mission and Jim was scheduled to join them. Our first bounty with Ryan on the team was a tough one but we made it… but not before I got hurt protecting Ryan. My arm was partially immobilized and all Ryan did was bitch at me.

"I don't need people protecting me! Especially a girl!"

"I saved your life you ungrateful asshole!"

"Oh bullshit, I could've just as easily taken that bullet…"

That argument continued for about an hour and even the bounty was getting annoyed. Spike decided to separate us and make Alex my partner until he went back to live with his parents in November. After November, who knew what was going to happen.


	6. Authors Note

So, you're probably wondering when the hell i'm gonna update this thing… I'm honestly not sure.. i've got some major problems going on right now and after I resolve them, i'm gonna pull apart this whole thing and maybe rewrite it all. Theres so much I want to add and yeah. Enjoy the summer while it lasts and enjoy!!!

-- MystikalCherryBlossom


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